Month: September 2017

The one way the Knicks can get Kyrie Irving is by trading Carmelo Anthony. The problem is Anthony doesn’t want to go to Cleveland if Kyrie Irving isn’t there as well.

It has been reported mutliple times that the Knicks have reached out to the Cavaliers in hopes of trading Anthony to them for Irving. The issue, though, is that Anthony still wants to play for Houston according to ESPN’s Ian Begley.

Gilbert didn’t learn enough from three straight NBA Finals trips and a championship that bathed him, the city and the organization in glory. He was just another rich guy who was lucky to have a local hero fall into his lap — twice. He didn’t figure out that all he had to do to bask forever in this glow was to leave well enough alone, with the smart executive and the transformational player.

Now they all run the risk of capsizing. Griffin has gone overboard, days before the draft and weeks before free agency, heading into a pivotal offseason for a team fighting to keep pace with the Warriors team that just took their crown.

There’s a big problem with Barkley’s argument, though. He’s contradicting himself. Remember what Barkley had to say about Kevin Durant when he decided to sign with the Warriors?

Kevin is a terrific player, he’s a good kid. But just disappointed with the fact that he weakened another team and he’s gonna kind of gravy train on a terrific Warriors team, Barkley said last summer on ESPN’s Mike and Mike. Just disappointed from a competitive standpoint. Because just like it meant more to LeBron to win one in Cleveland, it would mean more to Kevin to win one in Oklahoma than it would be in Golden State.

According to ESPN, James planned to watch the game courtside, but changed his mind after seeing how many people were attending the event:

LeBron James had planned to watch the Ball-Williamson showdown courtside, but he did not get out of his vehicle after he arrived, instead deciding to avoid the frenzy after a conversation with people associated with the Adidas Uprising Summer Championships, a source told ESPN.com.

James arrived with several people before choosing to skip an event that already had been dealing with overcrowding and local police threatening to shut it down, per the source.

I don’t understand the Kyrie situation, Barkley said. This generation of players — you want to be on a good team. You want to play with other great players. This notion where you want to be the man, I just think it’s so stupid. If I got a chance to play with another great player, I want to do that. The objective is to win.

When he was on a bad team and he was the man, I guarantee you that wasn’t a lot of fun for him. And now you want to leave the best player in the world. And listen, I hear all of this stuff about how LeBron casts a big shadow. He should cast a big shadow… If you get a chance to play with great players, that’s half the battle.

Acquiring guard Andrew Wiggins in 2014 was the first step the Timberwolves took to relevancy, jumping them to the top of the NBA’s up-and-coming teams.

By adding Karl Anthony-Towns the next year in the draft and Jimmy Butler via trade a month ago, the Timberwolves are now a force to be reckoned with. And they apparently want to remain that way for years to come by signing their talented young players for the foreseeable future.

Wiggins is the first up for an extension, and the Timberwolves have plans to get that done soon, according to ESPN.

While Beasley is often viewed as a draft bust considering he was taken No. 2 overall behind Rose and ahead of 2016-17 MVP Russell Westbrook and four-time All-Star Kevin Love, the former Kansas State one-and-doner has stretched out a productive career and serves as a low-risk, (somewhat) high-reward signing. Beasley averaged 9.4 points per game for the Bucks last season on 53.2 percent shooting (41.9 percent from 3-point range), finishing with the second-highest player efficiency rating (17.8) of his nine-year NBA career.

At 28 years old on a veteran’s minimum contract ($2.1 million), Beasley provides a scoring punch as a reserve for a team that finished 25th in the league in bench scoring (31.9 points per game). And that’s assuming he comes off the bench — if Carmelo Anthony does eventually get traded, Beasley might need to step into the starting lineup. As one scout told The New York Post’s Marc Berman, He can flat out score — isos along the right baseline. He could be a perfect replacement for Melo, if he’s traded.

Charles Oakley has some thoughts on the current generation of NBA stars.

Speaking in Dallas before this weekend’s BIG3 event, the former Knicks star said today’s players are sensitive and that some should wear dresses.

The elbow jumper. It’s just part of his natural scoring instinct. When he gets you on the elbow he can create something, he is going to move his feet 100 different ways, but he knows where he is going. He can make a fallaway from there, which is the kind of clutch, late-game move you need. Of all the things he does, that is the one that shows just how good he can be.

He gets a little selfish out there. He won’t be able to do that with a team as talented as the Celtics. There are too many other scorers. But he does get it in his mind sometimes that he is going to take the shot, and he might use up all the clock before he throws up a dud. That is fixable, though.

You can do anything with this guy defensively. He can guard four positions. He has instincts, he can swallow up shooting guards with his length and his athleticism, but he is strong enough to handle 4s. His ability to get to the basket is terrific, but the way he can switch off anyone and still handle himself defensively, that is going to change things for the Suns.

He won’t be able to live off athleticism on the offensive end in the NBA. He needs to completely rebuild his shot, I think. He is young enough that you can break him down and rebuild his jumper and probably do it pretty quickly.

Michael Jordan finally responded Monday to LaVar Ball’s outrageous boast earlier this year in USA Today that Back in my heyday, I would kill Michael Jordan one-on-one.

Answering questions at his Michael Jordan Flight School in Santa Barbara, Calif., Jordan not only addressed Ball’s comments but also put the man in his place succinctly.

It doesn’t deserve a response, but I’ma give it to you because you asked the question, Jordan said. I don’t think he could beat me if I was one-legged.

A little context: LaVar Ball played one season at Washington State, averaging 2.2 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. Michael Jordan played 13 seasons in the NBA and averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.

No one in his right mind thinks Ball could beat MJ one-on-one, including, now we know, MJ himself.

All of this, of course, comes with an obvious caveat: Griffin’s health. He has suffered a number of injuries over the last three seasons that have limited him to playing 163 out of a possible 246 regular season games. Seeing as most of those have been lower body injuries, it raises concerns about how prepared he is to put the Clippers on his back and carry them to the playoffs in what will be a loaded Western Conference. Griffin might not even be healthy to start next season (though he has said he expects to be ready for training camp), which wouldn’t be the most promising of starts to the post-Paul era in Los Angeles.

Nevertheless, if we’re operating under the assumption that Griffin can stay healthy, there’s no reason why the Clippers can’t continue to be one of the top offensive teams in the NBA with him at the helm. Griffin has shown he is capable of being both a scorer and a facilitator in the past, and the Clippers are built to play to his strengths.

At the very least, they owe it to themselves to see how far Griffin can take them as the No. 1 option as he enters his prime.

LeBron James took to Twitter to voice his condemnation of the white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., that turned violent and the manner in which President Donald Trump responded to the situation.

As white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen clashed with counter-protesters, a car drove into a crowd of people, killing one and injuring 19 others. A few hours later, two Virginia state police officers died when their helicopter crashed in an accident linked to the rally.

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!, Trump tweeted.

But what comes after that for James? We checked in with executives around the league for insights on what to expect for James next summer.

Stay home As goofy as things have gotten with the Cavs, all is not lost with James and his team. He has left Cleveland once, of course, and the sting of the backlash he got after that still lingers. But there is a sense that James accomplished what he went back to Cleveland to accomplish win a championship and that his next move will center on giving him one more run at a title, combined with his personal comfort.

Head to LA James has a home in Los Angeles, and it is an open secret around the league that the Lakers are planning a major push, with new honcho Magic Johnson as the salesman, to woo James next summer.

The NBA Referees Association is not happy with LaVar Ball’s sexist rant about a female referee after an AAU game on Friday in Las Vegas.

She’s a woman who’s trying to act get that she’s trying to break into the referee thing, Ball said. But just giving techs and calling fouls, that’s no way to do it. I know what she trying to say: I gave LaVar, I gave him a tech, I’m strong.’ That ain’t got nothing to do with it. Just call the game.

If you’re going to be qualified, you better be in shape, and you better know the game. And she’s bad on both of them. She’s not in shape, she’s not calling the game right, and she don’t understand, so now she’s trying to make a name for herself. So she’s walking around like, I’m the only woman in here.’ Yeah, we get it, I don’t care if you a woman or a man or whatever, just be good at what you do.

The NBA Referees Association posted a series of tweets on Sunday, sharing their disappointment in Ball’s behavior and how Adidas, who had the female replaced, handled the situation.

This appalling story about the female referee removed during an AAU game warrants serious discussion, read a tweet from the NBA Referees Association Twitter account. First, the misogynistic comments and intimidation by the coach have no place in basketball – or anywhere. The actions by Adidas show what happens when an organization does not support those tasked with protecting the integrity of the game. We support the referee community. This offensive behavior cannot stand, & hurts all those involved in basketball.

There are conflicting reports about the way the incident at the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts unfolded.

Iguodala’s words, not ours.

He’s up there with the smartest basketball players and the game comes so easy to him so you would think he’s athletic, Iguodala said while helping out with TNT’s coverage of the PGA Championship on Saturday afternoon (via TheScore.com). But like if you watch him throw a football it’s like, he played tight end but he can’t throw a football. And he can’t hit a baseball, he whacks at a baseball like … any other sport, it just doesn’t transfer for him.

Good thing Green’s skill set is more than enough to make him millions upon millions of dollars playing basketball. He averaged 10.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 7.0 assists for the Warriors this past season, helping the team to its second NBA title in three years, so it doesn’t matter if he can’t hit a 9 iron. He’s pretty set for life.

Just don’t expect him to pull a Michael Jordan and attempt a second career with the Lancaster Jethawks because the man is not a multi-sport athlete.

They (were) doing that because they said James just be going in there spending like … you know what I mean, Mal said (about 21 minutes into the episode). So they gave him his own jersey hanging from the rafters of the strip club.

The champion Warriors confirmed to ESPN.com Wednesday that they will be the first team in the NBA to require personal seat licenses for fans wanting to buy season tickets at their new $1 billion arena.

Many NFL teams charge fees for the right to buy season tickets, but the revenue-driver has never been used in the NBA.

According to the report, the Suns and Cavs have agreed to include Eric Bledsoe and a first-round pick in 2018 in the deal, but the Suns are unwilling to include Jackson and already have told Devin Booker he wouldn’t be traded.

If that [Bledsoe, a first-round pick and Jackson] deal for Irving was there, it’d be done by now, an unidentified league source with knowledge of the Cavs’ thinking told Cleveland.com.

CBSSports.com puts a finer point on the potential trade’s context: Phoenix isn’t on Irving’s list of preferred destinations, and since he holds a player option for the 2019-20 season, the Suns don’t want to face dealing Jackson, a key piece in their rebuild, only to see Irving gone after two seasons.

Stay tuned. Under league rules, Jackson can’t be traded for 30 days after signing his rookie contract, which he did July 3. That means the Suns couldn’t deal him until later this week.

So what is this accident Kanter speaks of? No one knows, but apparently he has already punished himself for buzzing off his trademark facial hair.

There is always the caveat, after more than two weeks of Summer League basketball in the NBA, that what you just witnessed does not count for much. The stars of Summer League so often are swept into the league’s dustbin — one of the great all-time Summer-Leaguers, after all, was Anthony Randolph, who is sometimes known by his nickname, Anthony Who?

Irving decided to ask the Cavaliers for a trade after talking to his pastor, Carl Lentz of Hillsong Church, according to TMZ Sports.

Irving went to Lentz recently and talked to him about his desire not always be overshadowed by LeBron James. While Lentz didn’t tell Irving to leave the team, according to the report, he said Irving needed to do what was in his best interests.

Pop star Justin Bieber reportedly consulted with Lentz before pulling out of a recent tour, with rumors swirling that Lentz was influential in helping Bieber realize he wanted to focus on his Christian life. Bieber recently shot down those reports, saying he was exhausted after touring for two years.

TMZ also posted a video showing Irving, Bieber and Lentz hanging out at an arcade last week.

I could’ve easily gone crazy, Mason Jr. said.

Death and disappointment are no stranger to him. His grandmother, Mason Sr.’s mother, died just two weeks ago. Before his father passed away, he’d already lost a brother on his mom’s side of the family. Injuries derailed a once promising basketball career and a chance to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Mason Jr. is 6-7 just like Sr. However, he’s much leaner at 215 pounds, whereas Mason Sr. was listed at 250 pounds during his playing days, one of the most menacing physical forces in 1990s basketball. Mason Jr. averaged 14 points per game as a junior for the Red Storm but only played 19 games as a redshirt senior due to injury.